I'm currently feeling really frustrated by one of my classes. It's cross listed between the English and Curriculum & Instruction departments, but the only links to C&I are related to teaching first-year undergraduate writing studies courses -- and those links are few and far between. It really shouldn't be cross-listed.
And the readings, oy, the readings -- if I never think about rhetoric again it will be too soon. It's not my field, I'm not interested in this stuff. It's all academia for academia's sake, and although theoretically, I support the idea of people exercising their brains and engaging in pointless debates with one another, in practice, I'm just so sick of it. All these articles I'm reading have little-to-no relevance to my life as a teacher, which is what I came here to develop.
Besides that, I can't help but think about how much all these people are getting paid to think and write -- which again, theoretically, I support. But then I start daydreaming about how all that money could be going to our public schools (which is what I daydream about whenever I hear that someone's being paid an exorbitant salary), and I just feel disgusted.
The field of writing studies was developed to figure out what should be taught in first-year composition courses, but it has morphed into a weird conglomeration of texts on rhetoric. It's no longer doing anything practical for the world, except allowing more writing studies professors to get tenure (and oh, how I loathe tenure.) I know I should appreciate the fact that people can make money and build a life off of their ideas, but after being in the teaching trenches, I just don't support it.
The drop deadline is in a few weeks. I can't decide if I should stick it out (I really do like the professor) or jump ship.
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